Not Your Typical Romance Story
by Carprincess
Summary: Everyone knows of those stories where the girl is some weak helpless duckling in need of rescuing, but that's not how Cariger rolls. So lay back, relax, and enjoy this simple fanfiction about a miner and how she somehow manages to dig up true love.


**Not Your Typical Romance Story**

Chapter One

Before anything, this is my first fanfiction. I know many people use that excuse whenever they submit fanfiction, but it's true. So if you are looking for a top-notch Runescape fanfiction, this is the wrong place to look and you should just click that 'back' button and continue searching. However, if you don't mind the grammatical mistakes or the n00bishness of this fanfiction, then sit back and enjoy.

I do not own Runescape and never will.

However the main character of this fanfiction does indeed exist and if you ever happen to see Cariger online, it's me. Other characters are completely made up and if you are interested in seeing your character in this fanfiction (I don't know why you would. ^^o) then send me a private message here on fanfiction or just talk to me on Runescape.

Now on to the story!

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Small hands gripped tightly on the wood of a rune pickaxe before being swung down on the chunk of rock that contained the precious and sought-after ore. The coal ore. This process of raising up the pickaxe and thrusting it downward continued until a small chunk of the black coal fell to the ground with a soft barely audible thud. However, there it was in all its glory, the coal that was the core ingredient for many smiths to create powerful weapons.

"Heh, lookie here."

Right next to the coal, a tiny emerald had plopped down right next to it. The pickaxe was placed down on the ground gently and the brunette who had been mining for the past hour had bent down to pick up the two items. Her tiny but roughened hands tucked away the ore in her bag, but then took a moment to examine the jewel with her own emerald-colored eyes. "I'll make an amulet later, too bad I ain't strong enough ta enchant it though…" With a sigh, the female tucked away the uncut emerald in a safe side pocket, deciding to go back to her previous task. Collecting coal ores. So once again the female lifted up her pickaxe, lips curving to a grin as she swung down on the rock once more.

"Hey, what's a cute thing like you doing in a place like this? It must mean that you like to get down and dirty."

Emerald eyes flashed dangerously as the brunette glanced sideways at the man who spoke to her. He was a rather tall male with gray eyes, messy brown locks of hair, and wore mithril armor. "I'm minin' that's 'bout all. Now if ya excuse me I dun got time ta play games with noobs like yourself." After saying those words, she flashed him a simple grin before once again focusing on the task at hand. Getting coal ores, after all, they weren't going to mine themselves. So after a couple of minutes of mining, another soft thud was heard as a coal ore once again plopped down to the ground. "How about we go back to my place and I'll give you a massage? It looks like you need one with all that heavy lifting you do babe."

It looked like her words hadn't done much to make the man flee.

But then again, who could take a five foot tall girl like herself seriously?

"Oy… Do ya _want_ lil ol me ta wack your foot with my little friend?" This time when she spoke, she turned around fully to face the tall male, about a foot taller than herself. Her emerald eyes glanced up at him as she waited for a response while she moved one of her hands off of the wooden handle of her pickaxe to brush some strands of her hair away from her sweaty face. Her other hand remained on the handle though, holding it rather loosely as if it weighed nothing. "Now you wouldn't want to do that now would you? I mean, I'm sure you do need a man in your life and I could very well keep you safe from any harm."

Laughter escaped the young female's lips, _him_, be her knight-in-shinning armor? "Cute, but nah… I think I could take care of mah self." So with these words and with occasional chuckles that escaped her lips, the short female walked pass him and out of the Dwarfan Mines. After all, even though most women would die to have five men hit on them… It was something that happened everyday to this female. _'I ain't even attractive'_. Which was partly true, this female named Cariger did not look even close to a model. She was a short female who stood only about five feet tall and due to hours of mining, her arms and legs were rather well-toned while her lightly tanned skin was covered from head to toe with dirt and coal. Her brown locks of hair were never silky smooth, instead they were kept in two high-pig tails with split-ends and knots. Her rune armor was also covered in dirt, from her rune chest armor to her rune skirt while her red cape was slightly torn and ripped at the edges in the similar dirt-filled condition as herself. Perhaps the only 'pretty' thing about her appearance were her eyes, but that was about it.

Then again… Cariger almost couldn't blame the poor guy for hitting on her, not many females became miners; sure some _tried_ to take mining as a hobby, but it was rare to find actual female miners who enjoyed sweating every afternoon in the dirt-filled mines while straining their muscles to get a couple of ores.

Heck, Cariger herself never thought she'd be a miner after she left her hometown of Varrock. For her mind had been clouded with dreams of becoming a famous swordswoman- A powerful warrior whose name would be in textbooks for children to learn about in school. But alas, that was just a mere dream. The competition proved to be too tough and large for the small structured female to go against, so she decided to try out many other things to figure out what was the best thing suited for her. Something that would give a meaning to her life, something that could perhaps give her the fame, fortune, and power that her little heart desired.

Archery seemed to be the best choice for someone as lithe as herself, but the fact that once all her arrows were gone she'd be like a helpless kitten didn't appeal to her so much. The same problem bounced right back at her when she decided to give magic a try, for not only did she rely on runes to perform magic spells… But she needed to do math in her head to figure out how many runes of each element to bring so she could cast the right spells and math… As well as other things that went hand-in-hand with knowledge didn't appeal to her either. Cooking was rather fun, but once again math was needed to know ingredients and it was too peaceful for her liking. She preferred to kill the cows she cooked instead of cooking them. Fishing was something she enjoyed, it was outdoors and the adrenaline that she got whenever she had something on the line was similar to the one she got whenever she was in the battlefield… Though patience was never her virtue and sitting like a statue waiting for some moronic fish to take the bait took too long for her liking.

When Cariger thought all hope was lost, she was outdoors and had just made herself a simple campfire. And that's when it hit her. Woodcutting. A simple profession that did not require math, it would give her muscles a work out everyday, and if she got good then it'd make her some gold coins right? So first she started out with cutting simple regular trees, then she moved on to oak, and then finally to willow… However the little bag of coins that she received in return never really gave her enough pleasure and soon enough, cutting trees became rather dull and boring. The only way she'd be entertained and not die of this boredom was by killing nearby enemies such as unicorns and bears. Though these battles proved to be rough with just her iron sword, which was why she decided to head towards the Varrock mine. It was a small mine, but it had enough copper, tin, and iron to keep her entertained. It took her many tries to gather enough ores to take to the furnace in Lumbridge and it took her even more tries to change those ores into bars of copper and iron without burning herself (or completely destroying the ores), and even more tries to make a decent weapon or shield. In fact all of this took months for her to learn and perfect, she slowly and gradually began to spend more time in the Varrock mine instead of the woods and soon enough… She fell in love.

Mining and smithing. Nothing pleased her more. Sure, the feeling of defeating a powerful opponent was wonderful, but the pride she felt after creating a powerful shield or sword filled her heart with the same exact joy. Especially since she would create all her weapons from scratch, mining the materials on her own, turning them into bars, and then finally hammering those bars down to sell to shops so warriors in need could buy them and put them out to use in the wild. And unlike the other occupations and life-styles that the brunette tried, this one was self-sufficient. She didn't need to worry about the amount of arrows she had, she didn't need to worry about how many of certain elemental runes she carried around, all she needed for this was a pickaxe. And if anything were to happen with it, she'd just make herself a new one. This was a totally independent occupation, one that she could rely on without worrying about anything else. Not to forget to mention, it also made her bank account fill up with much more gold than selling boring old logs.

Just like most relationships though, mining and smithing was not _perfect_ and did have their own downsides. But the brunette loved mining and smithing anyway, even if it required hours of spending in a dark, cold, and filthy mine. Even if some mornings she woke up with back pain or sore muscles from mining too much. After all, mining did require lots of strength and endurance, something that strained her body. Not to forget to mention, all the walking that was required to take her loads back and forth from the mines to the bank, and then from the bank to the furnace, and then finally from the furnace to the iron to pound on those bars of steel, iron, mithril, and copper to create her works of art.

So why would someone like herself need a man if she was passionately in love with her craft? Why would someone like herself who trained her body daily to its limits need a man to protect her? No, the whole idea was ridiculous and pointless.

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That's the end of the first chapter!

I really hope I didn't bore you all with this fanfiction. I will continue updating this depending on how busy work is since I tend to type chapters on my free time while working (I know, I'm such a bad person). So review if you like and if you don't want to review then I guess that's your choice. Flame me, compliment me, suggest things, really do what you want. I don't mind.

Also has for the pairing, I have a couple of pairings that I have in mind. What I've been thinking of would be a **female miner x male magician. **Since I personally think that'd be awesome. However if you want to suggest a different pairing for the fanfic, tell me. I mean I'm pretty open-minded.


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